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Monday, May 5, 2014

A Chinese Day

Over the last week I have heard Japanese, Thai and Chinese languages spoken in my bus. Today it was the latter. Picked them up at the airport around 2pm and was bound to go to Banff, but the folks were hungry and needed to go for lunch. Of course, that somehow, changed not only their day but mine too. This time at the airport I made an observation which I tried to illustrate in 2 pictures:At Tim Hortons… At Starbucks…When we finally reached Banff we were already behind schedule. It was then that I noticed a problem with the bus transmission. It wouldn’t run the bus as it used to and I finally had to give it up. We barely made it to the front entrance of the famous Banff Springs Hotel and that was it. So I called the company and they sent another bus and a mechanic. Good thing it happened at the home base and not somewhere along the highway in some nasty grey weather. Of course the bell personnel of the hotel were not happy having a stinking Diesel bus stuck in their driveway, but oh well… There was really nothing I could do. Later, the arriving mechanic found the reason. Unlike I thought that we had lost tranny oil, it was a wiring defect which left the tranny high and dry.

So here I sat in a new bus driving them up to the gondola station. It was foggy and it snowed too. So there would be nothing to see, but I guess when you have paid for something you wanna do it. So after the whole gang had disappeared up the mountain, I kinda hung around a Starbucks Coffee place where I got into a chat with a young lady behind the counter. After only a few moments it turned out that she was on a work visa and from Germany. So the rest of the conversation was, naturally, in pure German.But when the Chinese returned from their mountain trip the day was far from over. Even though it was 9pm they wanted to go to a Korean Restaurant. I started to wonder whether they ever could be tired out. By now it is 10pm and they are still feasting on Korean food, which, in this place, is prepared in the true Korean way. Unfortunately, that is not after my taste, so after a bowl of rice and some unspecified shredded raw veggies it was time to seek refuge in the bus. Yes, I haven’t eaten much all day, it would fit altogether on a small plate. But hey, I’m gonna have breakfast tomorrow morning and then I will have my very own BIG lunch package with me for the rest of the day.

When me and my ambulance finally reached “home” the clock showed 11pm. Now, I could make myself something to EAT. A freshly oven toasted roll with cheese and a little ketchup underneath was tasting deliciously “normal”.

So I will try to cut out my thoughts and find some rest for the night.